diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/Altocumulus.mp3 b/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/Altocumulus.mp3 index 15a1315..25223d2 100644 Binary files a/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/Altocumulus.mp3 and b/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/Altocumulus.mp3 differ diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/index.md index 4ca0cde..f26cc06 100644 --- a/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/index.md +++ b/content/journal/dispatch-12-february-2024/index.md @@ -4,11 +4,83 @@ date: 2024-01-24T22:48:09-05:00 draft: false tags: - dispatch +references: +- title: "My iPhone Taught Me How to Grieve - The Atlantic" + url: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/iphone-grief-dynamic-wallpaper/677034/ + date: 2024-01-30T03:57:19Z + file: www-theatlantic-com-lww5au.txt +- title: "Grief and a Photo Shuffle – Six Colors" + url: https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/01/grief-and-a-photo-shuffle/ + date: 2024-01-30T03:57:45Z + file: sixcolors-com-xx0plp.txt +- title: "Periodical 14 – v DIY - Christopher Butler ☼" + url: https://www.chrbutler.com/2024-01-21 + date: 2024-01-30T04:10:23Z + file: www-chrbutler-com-gbjxba.txt --- +We spent MLK weekend with my folks in the Shennandoah Valley, and visited [Luray Caverns][1], something I'd done as a kid and still rips 30 years later. Neat place, highly recommended if you're ever in that area. We also got some snow at our cabin, which was pretty fun for Nev. + +[1]: https://luraycaverns.com/ + + + +{{}} +{{}} + +I signed up for the [Wrightsville Beach Valentine Run][2] 10K in Wilmington in early February. Feeling pretty good about that -- gives us a good excuse to spend a weekend with Claire's sister in Wilmington, and adds a little bit of focus to my running without the commitment of half-marathon training. Might try to keep that going, finding good pairings of organized 10Ks in places we want to visit. + +[2]: https://runsignup.com/Race/NC/WrightsvilleBeach/WrightsvilleBeachValentineRun + +I stumbled on [this article][3] ([via][4]) about an iOS feature that periodically updates your lock screen to a random photo of a selected person. It is ... delightful. + +{{}} +{{}} +{{}} +{{}} + +[3]: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/iphone-grief-dynamic-wallpaper/677034/ +[4]: https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/01/grief-and-a-photo-shuffle/ + +Here's a new track called "Altocumulus": + - +I really set out to make a track that didn't have a bass hit on one and three and snare on two and four, but some things you just can't resist, though you can tell I tried for the first 90 seconds or so. I also found a [really nice app][5] for practicing scales -- Apple catches a lot of shit (perhaps deservedly so) for its app store policies, but it's a pretty cool thing that I can so easily find quality software like this at a fair price. + +[5]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/piano-chords-and-scales/id714086944 + +I traded a couple emails with my buddy [Prayash][6]. He's a super talented musician (among other things) and has a new track out called ["Weightless"][7] that's worth a listen. He also put a [video on Instagram][8] of his production process which is neat. + +[6]: https://prayash.io/link/ +[7]: https://music.apple.com/us/album/weightless/1722942938?i=1722942941 +[8]: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2bWin4rSLG/ + +I installed [these crossbars][9] on our car in the hopes that we can avoid replacing it with something bigger for a while longer. I get a real kick out of DIY upgrades and fixes like this -- using your brain and hands to adapt the things you have to better suit your needs is so, so satisfying. Fellow Durham blogger [Christopher Butler][10] put up a [good post][11] that speaks to this same idea: + +> One thing I hope my children learn is to nurture the balance of curiosity, creativity, and willingness to mess-up that is needed to make the world your own while you’re here. + +[9]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045V8CKU +[10]: https://www.chrbutler.com/ +[11]: https://www.chrbutler.com/2024-01-21 + +Couple security updates: my favorite [TOTP][12] app, Raivo, [got bought up by a shady-looking company][13], so I switched over to to [2FAS][14]. Super smooth onboarding experience, and I actually prefer its authentication flow (browser plugin ➡️ push notification ➡️ Face ID ➡️ accept ➡️ autofill). Also, I listened to [a podcast][15] some months back that described the damage a thief can do with a stolen iPhone, so when I learned about this new [Stolen Device Protection][16] feature, I enabled it immediately. + +[12]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_one-time_password +[13]: https://blog.thenewoil.org/changes-arent-permanent-but-change-is +[14]: https://2fas.com/ +[15]: https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2023/07/11/ep-381 +[16]: https://gizmodo.com/stop-everything-enable-stolen-device-protection-iphone-1851188262 + +I finished [_Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales_][17] and decided to stay on the short story collection train with [_Story of Your Life and Others_][18]. + +[17]: # +[18]: # + +I try to keep plaintext backups of the things I link to on this site, at least the text-heavy stuff I might want to refer to later (you can see them down below in the "references" section). I'd been using [Lynx][19] to get the text to store, but that was having issues on some sites, so I switched over to [w3m][20] after finding the right command-line flag[^1] to include link URLs in the text. I've got some ideas around building a more robust archiving solution but I'm gonna let it marinate for a bit. + +[19]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser) +[20]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W3m This month: @@ -18,18 +90,31 @@ This month: Reading: -* Fiction: [_Title_][1], Author -* Non-fiction: [_Title_][2], Author +* Fiction: [_Story of Your Life and Others_][21], Ted Chiang +* Non-fiction: [_Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life_][22], Anne Lamott -[1]: https://bookshop.org/ -[2]: https://bookshop.org/ +[21]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/stories-of-your-life-and-others-lib-e-ted-chiang/16687839 +[22]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/bird-by-bird-some-instructions-on-writing-and-life-anne-lamott/8649952?ean=9780385480017 Links: -* [Title][3] -* [Title][4] -* [Title][5] +* [[2024-01-11#Hypercritical I Made This]] +* [[2024-01-17#The Rise and Fall of Getting Things Done The New Yorker]] +* [In Search Of The Shanahan Offense](https://defector.com/in-search-of-the-shanahan-offense) +* [[2024-01-21#Cold-blooded software]] + * via [[2024-01-21#Cold-blooded Software - Jim Nielsen’s Blog]] +* [[2024-01-21#How I Pocket Notebook cygnoir.net]] + * [[2024-01-21#Paper notes - macwright.com]] + * [[2024-01-21#Paper notes - Tim Hårek]] -[3]: https://example.com/ -[4]: https://example.com/ -[5]: https://example.com/ +* [Title][23] +* [Title][24] +* [Title][25] + +[23]: https://example.com/ +[24]: https://example.com/ +[25]: https://example.com/ + +[^1]: Running `w3m -dump -o display_link_number=1 ` gives a nice plaintext version of a webpage with numbered link references (via this [helpful StackOverflow link][26]) + +[26]: https://askubuntu.com/questions/805014/getting-text-and-links-from-a-web-page/1493418#1493418 diff --git a/static/archive/sixcolors-com-xx0plp.txt b/static/archive/sixcolors-com-xx0plp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9abc41 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/sixcolors-com-xx0plp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ +[1] Six Colors +[2] Six Colors + +by Jason Snell & Dan Moren + +MENU + + • [3]About + □ [4]Sponsorships + □ [5]Jason Snell + □ [6]Dan Moren + □ [7]Six Colors Hat + □ [8]Six Colors Shirt + • [9]Archive + • [10]Sign In + • [11]Membership + • [12]Topics + □ [13]2023 OS updates + □ [14]iOS 17 + □ [15]macOS Sonoma + □ [16]iPadOS 17 + □ [17]Reviews + □ [18]Apple Report Card + □ [19]WWDC 2023 + □ [20]Automation + □ [21]Podcasting + □ [22]E-readers + □ [23]Apple Photos + □ [24]20 Macs for 2020 + + • [25]About + □ [26]Sponsorships + □ [27]Jason Snell + □ [28]Dan Moren + □ [29]Six Colors Hat + □ [30]Six Colors Shirt + • [31]Archive + • [32]Sign In + • [33]Membership + • [34]Topics + □ [35]2023 OS updates + □ [36]iOS 17 + □ [37]macOS Sonoma + □ [38]iPadOS 17 + □ [39]Reviews + □ [40]Apple Report Card + □ [41]WWDC 2023 + □ [42]Automation + □ [43]Podcasting + □ [44]E-readers + □ [45]Apple Photos + □ [46]20 Macs for 2020 + +This Week's Sponsor + +Record a voice memo, receive it as email. Get [47]Whisper Memos for iPhone & +Apple Watch. +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +by Jason Snell + +[48]January 5, 2024 12:41 PM PT + +[49]Grief and a Photo Shuffle + +Charlie Warzel’s beloved dog died last year, and he [50]used an iPhone feature +to memorialize her: + + Instead of a memorial photo of Peggy, I opted to try a newer, “dynamic” + wallpaper feature called “Photo Shuffle.” Every so often, my iPhone would + change my wallpaper and home screen to an image it had grabbed from my + camera roll. To help it along, I could offer parameters for the photo + choice. Knowing that Apple’s Photos app uses image-recognition software to + identify cats and dogs in the camera roll, I chose a “Pets” filter. + + Grief is not linear, and neither is Photo Shuffle. Over the next few + months, I watched the photos change in and out at random—always with a dog + in focus.  + +Not only do I empathize with Warzel’s situation (we lost a beloved dog in +August 2022), but [51]as I wrote about last year, my wife and I also recently +started using the Photo Shuffle feature that was introduced with iOS 16… and +it’s pretty powerful. + +Not a week goes by where my wife doesn’t show me one of the pictures of our +kids (her phone is set to shuffle through photos in which either of our +children’s faces has been identtified) that have surfaced on her phone’s lock +screen. We’ve taken tens of thousands of photos of these children over two +decades, and while many photos are familiar (the ones that we’ve printed out +and framed, or put on calendars, or added to a Favorites list), the vast +majority of them have largely gone unseen, filed away in an infinite iCloud +Photo Library filing cabinet. + +One of the magical thing about Photo Shuffle is that those obscure photos also +keep floating to the top. They’re not necessarily the best or most polished, +but they’re surprising and delightful. + +Warzel writes that iOS has “taught me how to grieve,” and while I haven’t used +Photo Shuffle to grapple with that particular emotion, just a few weeks after +our dog died, our youngest child went off to college and we officially became +empty nesters. I suppose the Photo Shuffle is filling a particular (but +different) emotional need for us, too. + +—Linked by Jason Snell + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Search Six Colors + +[52][ ] + • [53]Sponsor + • [54]Mastodon + • [55]Shirt + • [56]Hat + • [57]RSS Feed + • [58]JSON Feed + • [59]Privacy Policy + +Six Colors® is copyright © 2024 by The Incomparable Inc. +[60]Powered by WordPress | [61]Hosted by Pressable + +References: + +[1] https://sixcolors.com/ +[2] https://sixcolors.com/ +[3] https://sixcolors.com/about/ +[4] https://sixcolors.com/sponsorship/ +[5] https://sixcolors.com/jason/ +[6] https://sixcolors.com/dan/ +[7] https://cottonbureau.com/p/T878W4/hat/six-colors-hat#/17202080/hat-unisex-yupoong-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-one-size-fits-all +[8] https://cottonbureau.com/p/AP2A6N/shirt/six-colors#/2269050/tee-men-standard-tee-premium-heather-tri-blend-s +[9] https://sixcolors.com/archive/ +[10] https://sixcolors.com/?memberful_endpoint=auth +[11] https://sixcolors.com/subscribe/ +[12] https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/01/grief-and-a-photo-shuffle/# +[13] https://sixcolors.com/tag/2023-os-updates/ +[14] https://sixcolors.com/tag/ios-17/ +[15] https://sixcolors.com/tag/macos-sonoma/ +[16] https://sixcolors.com/tag/ipados-17/ +[17] https://sixcolors.com/tag/review/ +[18] https://sixcolors.com/tag/reportcard/ +[19] https://sixcolors.com/tag/wwdc-2023/ +[20] https://sixcolors.com/tag/automation/ +[21] https://sixcolors.com/tag/podcasting/ +[22] https://sixcolors.com/tag/kindle/ +[23] https://sixcolors.com/tag/photosmac/ +[24] https://sixcolors.com/20macs +[25] https://sixcolors.com/about/ +[26] https://sixcolors.com/sponsorship/ +[27] https://sixcolors.com/jason/ +[28] https://sixcolors.com/dan/ +[29] https://cottonbureau.com/p/T878W4/hat/six-colors-hat#/17202080/hat-unisex-yupoong-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-one-size-fits-all +[30] https://cottonbureau.com/p/AP2A6N/shirt/six-colors#/2269050/tee-men-standard-tee-premium-heather-tri-blend-s +[31] https://sixcolors.com/archive/ +[32] https://sixcolors.com/?memberful_endpoint=auth +[33] https://sixcolors.com/subscribe/ +[34] https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/01/grief-and-a-photo-shuffle/# +[35] https://sixcolors.com/tag/2023-os-updates/ +[36] https://sixcolors.com/tag/ios-17/ +[37] https://sixcolors.com/tag/macos-sonoma/ +[38] https://sixcolors.com/tag/ipados-17/ +[39] https://sixcolors.com/tag/review/ +[40] https://sixcolors.com/tag/reportcard/ +[41] https://sixcolors.com/tag/wwdc-2023/ +[42] https://sixcolors.com/tag/automation/ +[43] https://sixcolors.com/tag/podcasting/ +[44] https://sixcolors.com/tag/kindle/ +[45] https://sixcolors.com/tag/photosmac/ +[46] https://sixcolors.com/20macs +[47] https://whispermemos.com/ +[48] https://sixcolors.com/link/2024/01/grief-and-a-photo-shuffle/ +[49] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/iphone-grief-dynamic-wallpaper/677034/?utm_campaign=galaxy-brain&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20240105&utm_term=galaxybrain +[50] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/iphone-grief-dynamic-wallpaper/677034/ +[51] https://sixcolors.com/offsite/2023/06/pro-tip-the-iphone-has-a-discoverability-problem/ +[53] https://sixcolors.com/sponsorship/ +[54] https://zeppelin.flights/@sixcolors +[55] https://cottonbureau.com/p/AP2A6N/shirt/six-colors#/2269050/tee-men-standard-tee-premium-heather-tri-blend-s +[56] https://cottonbureau.com/p/T878W4/hat/six-colors-hat#/17202080/hat-unisex-yupoong-dad-hat-black-100percent-cotton-one-size-fits-all +[57] https://feedpress.me/sixcolors?type=xml +[58] https://sixcolors.com/?feed=json +[59] https://www.theincomparable.com/blog/posts/privacy.html +[60] https://wordpress.com/wp/?partner_domain=sixcolors.com&utm_source=Automattic&utm_medium=colophon&utm_campaign=Concierge%20Referral&utm_term=sixcolors.com +[61] https://pressable.com/?utm_source=Automattic&utm_medium=rpc&utm_campaign=Concierge%20Referral&utm_term=concierge diff --git a/static/archive/www-chrbutler-com-gbjxba.txt b/static/archive/www-chrbutler-com-gbjxba.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b00b628 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/www-chrbutler-com-gbjxba.txt @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +[1] Christopher Butler ☼ + +[2]Archive + +[3]Info + +[4]Now + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Periodical 14 — v DIY + +While you’re here, make the world your own. + +[3cd9e2b2-3c0a-4053-b19e-ea042cb77dd0] + +Hello from the makerspace, otherwise known as home. + +Home should be a makerspace! At any level — food, art, life, clothing, and on +to more difficult craft like furniture and construction — everyone should have +their hands in something. Ideally, it’s unique, if not straight-up weird. Life +is too short to default on your surroundings. + +What Kyle Chayka calls [5]AirSpace is not exactly new, but it has been newly +invigorated by the power of Instagram (he also coined that term [6]back in 2016 +!). Yes, every coffee shop looks the same, and so does every Zoom background, +and every book cover, and every haircut, and so on. It’s called style. What is +culture, after all, but a shared sensibility? Kyle’s point, though, is that the +technology of the day spreads style especially quickly, which creates a +feedback loop that radiates outward into economies and life choices. I think +he’s right about that. + +Because there’s a big span of something between a shared culture of images and +things made in a certain way to express a certain value and images and things +made to do little more than appear like something else. The problem with going +much further with this critique is it really can’t be done without some kind of +snobbery — espousing the notion that one preference is simply better than +another. That’s not for me, so I won’t. + +But I will say that while debates over culture rage on, you can always just +make your own. It’s interesting; it’s fun; it’s often cheaper. + +– + +This weekend was a very DIY kind of weekend. + +The first project I finished was one I’d been contemplating for years. It was +High Optimization. You see, we store our CD collection on a set of built-in +shelves in our den that originate with the house itself — seventy-two year-old +construction, encyclopedia-deep like any good mid-century den should have. +What’s bothered me for years is that even though I rebuilt the shelves to +reduce the vertical space and house more rows of CDs, the depth remained the +same. The discs were always getting pushed back, making them hard to retrieve +without disrupting the entire row of discs and making everything look out of +order. It made me very twitchy. So I built custom frames to insert at the back +of the shelves, reducing their depth to about half-an inch shy of a CD. Now you +can push a disc fully back, keeping the row perfectly flush, and the half-inch +that hangs over the edge of the shelf is just the right amount to make +retrieving a single disc very smooth. The frame also retains the space behind +it, which is great for storing overflow or box sets. + +[eb2ed767-8b1f-4574-bb17-d5dc73e77249] + +I also made a set of dividers that are wrapped in very bright orange cardstock. +They divide the collection by genre and pop out very nicely. + +[e5f44b30-c128-4579-8d51-f62b015d2e1f] + +Since my tools were out and I had some extra wood, I made a quick sketch of a +desk riser I’d been imagining and quickly made it a reality. The moment my +daughter saw it in the office, she exclaimed “I WANT ONE TOO!” I said, let’s +draw one and make one together! + +[c8c5f2ed-eb96-4fa0-8daa-a369df0e7015] + +One thing I hope my children learn is to nurture the balance of curiosity, +creativity, and willingness to mess-up that is needed to make the world your +own while you’re here. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + +Written by [7]Christopher Butler on January 21, 2024, In [8]Log + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + + +Previous Entry + +[9] Periodical 13 Image ecology and my top 10 science fiction films. +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +⌨ Keep up via [10]Email or [11]RSS + +✺ [12]Impressum + +© Christopher Butler. All rights reserved + + + +References: + +[1] https://www.chrbutler.com/ +[2] https://www.chrbutler.com/archives +[3] https://www.chrbutler.com/information +[4] https://www.chrbutler.com/now/2024-01-06 +[5] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/jan/16/the-tyranny-of-the-algorithm-why-every-coffee-shop-looks-the-same +[6] https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification +[7] https://www.chrbutler.com/information +[8] https://www.chrbutler.com/tagged/log +[9] https://www.chrbutler.com/2024-01-07 +[10] https://dontthinkaboutthefuture.eo.page/8y4tg +[11] http://chrbutler.com/feed.rss +[12] https://www.chrbutler.com/impressum diff --git a/static/archive/www-theatlantic-com-lww5au.txt b/static/archive/www-theatlantic-com-lww5au.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a16dbc --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/www-theatlantic-com-lww5au.txt @@ -0,0 +1,276 @@ +[1]Skip to content + +Site Navigation + + • [2] + • + [5]Popular[6]Latest[7]Newsletters + + Sections + + □ [8]Politics + □ [9]Ideas + □ [10]Fiction + □ [11]Technology + □ [12]Science + □ [13]Photo + □ [14]Business + □ [15]Culture + □ [16]Planet + □ [17]Global + □ [18]Books + □ [19]Podcasts + □ [20]Health + □ [21]Education + □ [22]Projects + □ [23]Features + □ [24]Family + □ [25]Events + □ [26]Washington Week + □ [27]Progress + □ [28]Newsletters + □ [29][nav-arch]Explore The Atlantic Archive + □ [30][crosswor]Play The Atlantic crossword + + The Print Edition + + [31][current-issue] + [32]Latest Issue[33]Past Issues + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + [34]Give a Gift + • + Search The Atlantic + [37][ ] + Quick Links + □ [38]Dear Therapist + Dear Therapist + □ [39]Crossword Puzzle + Crossword Puzzle + □ [40]Magazine Archive + Magazine Archive + □ [41]Your Subscription + Your Subscription + • [43]Popular + • [44]Latest + • [45]Newsletters + +[46][47] + + • [48]Sign In + • [49]Subscribe + +[50]Technology + +A Second Life for My Beloved Dog + +A simple iPhone feature unexpectedly changed how I grieved. + + +By [51]Charlie Warzel +Illustration of a man walking his dog +Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Zero Creatives / Getty. +January 5, 2024 +Share +Save +Illustration of a man walking his dog + +Listen to this article + +[54][0 ] + +00:00 + +09:16 + +Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration. + +Peggy was my first dog—the dog I waited 28 patient years for. I finally met her +on August 15, 2015. She was eight weeks old, covered in filth after a 14-hour +ride from Georgia to New York, and inexplicably still adorable. Floppy ears. +Jet-black muzzle. Meaty little forepaws. We didn’t plan it this way, but my +partner and I rescued her on the same day we moved in together. Peggy +represented a new phase of my life: the beginning of my chosen family. + +As soon as I brought the chubby, squirming ball of fur home, I felt compelled +to capture, however clumsily, the joy she brought into our lives. You can see +the change in my iPhone’s camera roll: Two-thirds of the way through 2015, the +mosaic of images shifts away from the drab tones of a poorly lit Brooklyn +apartment and is infused with a new vitality. She was a junkyard dog—a stubborn +scrapper that loved eating garbage off the street, and one that had a +supernatural ability to charm humans. Once, in South Brooklyn, I left her tied +up for an instant to purchase a coffee and came out to find she’d seduced an +old Italian pastry chef to procure some breadcrumbs. People remarked that her +face felt familiar, like an old friend was in there somewhere. Her mystique was +compounded early on, when an unfortunate accident left her with three legs, for +which she compensated by becoming comically muscular. Of course I was obsessed +with documenting Peggy’s life. + +She was a constant, as any dog would be, through cross-country moves, +quarter-life crises, career changes, new presidential administrations, and a +pandemic. Then, one day last May, quite unexpectedly, she was gone. + +We let her go in the middle of the night, so quickly that we weren’t able to +say goodbye. Until then, I’d been lucky enough to avoid this type of tragic, +sudden loss. My grief in those early moments felt like the emergency exit on an +airplane had opened mid-flight, the sudden loss of cabin pressure violently +sucking everything out of the hull that isn’t bolted down. For days, my +fuselage was empty, the contents scattered and falling from the sky. I went on +walks, laughed and cried at random, and tried to stay busy. But all I really +wanted to do—the only thing that felt appropriate and sustaining—was [58]look +at pictures of Peggy on my phone. I lost hours inside my camera roll staring at +her reddish-brown fur centered in the frame, while watching us become a family +in the background. My device, normally a wasteland, became a refuge. + +[59]Read: There are no “five stages” of grief + +On the day she died, I set my phone’s wallpaper to my favorite photo of +Peggy—appearing to smile on a ridgeline trail in Missoula, Montana, the +bright-yellow balsamroot flowers in bloom behind her. But a month later, I told +myself that it was time to stop wallowing. Instead of a memorial photo of +Peggy, I opted to try a newer, “dynamic” wallpaper feature called “Photo +Shuffle.” Every so often, my iPhone would change my wallpaper and home screen +to an image it had grabbed from my camera roll. To help it along, I could offer +parameters for the photo choice. Knowing that Apple’s Photos app uses +image-recognition software to identify cats and dogs in the camera roll, I +chose a “Pets” filter. + +Grief is not linear, and neither is Photo Shuffle. Over the next few months, I +watched the photos change in and out at random—always with a dog in focus. Many +of the stills were pictures I didn’t remember taking, ones I’d passed over or +missed in my melancholic, late-night scrolling. So many were chaotic, blurred +streaks of fur and tongues curiously sniffing a lens or bounding out of frame; +a lot were objectively bad photos, which I found made them especially funny as +iPhone wallpaper. Peggy wasn’t the only subject—our other dog, Steve, a winsome +and serious-faced cattle dog, shared screen time—but being First Dog meant that +Peggy had been photographed much more. She took on a starring role: Peggy wet +from a beach swim, regal Peggy posing under the Christmas tree, puppy Peggy, +manic post-fetch Peggy with a yard’s length of tongue sticking out of her +mouth. Sad photos inevitably cropped up: Peggy in the hospital, Peggy’s last +car ride, Peggy and Steve side by side on our lawn, enjoying what would be +their last sunset together. + +My partner turned on Photo Shuffle, too, and we developed a new ritual. Look at +this new Peggy, one of us would say, holding a phone up to the other’s face. +We’d usually laugh or smile; occasionally one of us would tear up. Sweet girl. +Miss you, Pegs. Mostly, though, we’d take a moment and orient the photo in our +lives, remembering a trip or a random ordinary Wednesday on a trail or at the +dog park. The photos opened up little windows of reflection and a moment to +express some gratitude—for Peggy, and for our lives together. + +Devotees of note-taking apps such as Notion and Evernote have a term for the +mass of musings, links, documents, and projects they store on the cloud: the “ +[60]second brain.” If you organize your data the right way, these programs will +allow you to recall an extraordinary amount of information, in the same way +your mind might. I’ve never been very good at using these apps, but I’ve found +that my camera roll functions similarly. It is like a digital appendage of my +mind, functioning in a complementary, Proustian way—triggering and dredging up +memories that have been long filed away. My camera roll is a diary, a mood +board. Thanks to the ability to screenshot, it is also a place for sundry notes +and clippings. When I scroll through my photos over a long enough period, I +find they are a pretty decent archive of my life. + +[61]Read: Please get me out of dead-dog TikTok + +The dynamic wallpaper, however, adds a new layer to this experience. It is a +curator, maybe even a biographer. And, however inadvertently, the feature has +become a counselor, allowing me to grieve on my own timeline. Right now, Peggy +is the dominant face on my screen, but, over time, I imagine the ratio of Peggy +pictures to others will change. I will get older, get new dogs, do new things, +and take more pictures. Peggy will still be there, popping up when I least +expect it, but her presence will gently recede as I learn to live without her. +This complex universe of grief and moving on is playing out on my phone screen, +but also in my own behaviors. This summer, we added Beverly, a new puppy, to +our family. I’m not sure why but, since the pandemic, I’ve been less inclined +to take photos than I was in Peggy’s halcyon days. But recently I’ve found +myself consciously pausing and grabbing my phone to document Bev’s adolescence. +My renewed interest is simple: I need photos of Beverly so that she may join +the wallpaper rotation with frequency. + +A photograph of the author's dog in front of flowersPeggy resting in Missoula + +The more I scrutinize this small feature on my device and the way it became a +load-bearing part of the past year of my life, the more I encounter some +resistance from myself. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to think too +hard about what this all means, because doing so forces me to wrestle with just +how important this brick of ceramic glass really is. We can snark about being +addicted to our phones or worry about inflated screen-time numbers or the way +we pull out our cameras to document moments we should instead be present for, +but acknowledging the positives is equally disorienting—to do so suggests a +certain unknowability about a technology we live with every day. What are our +phones doing to us? A lot, it seems. Perhaps more than we realize. + +So much of the information I consume through my phone is jarring, presented in +an overwhelming, intrusive fashion—via push notifications and design tricks, +all vying for my attention. The dynamic wallpaper offers something else: quiet +moments in my day that stop me in my tracks and promote reflection, rather than +engagement. My phone’s operating system has taught me how to grieve. + +That doesn’t mean it’s been easy. It’s always the little things—the memory of +the crimped hair behind her velvety ears, the image of her panting softly while +sunning herself on the porch on a crisp summer morning, or the phantom feeling +of the heft of her body, pressed against mine as I read before bed. These +memories used to be painful; now they bring gratitude. Perhaps that’s because +they’re not static—they’re alive, both in me and on the silly little device I +take with me everywhere. There’s a three-legged hole in my heart, but I see +Peggy every day. + + +[62]Charlie Warzel is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its +newsletter [63]Galaxy Brain, about technology, media, and big ideas. He can be +reached via [64]email. + + +References: + +[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/01/iphone-grief-dynamic-wallpaper/677034/#main-content +[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/ +[5] https://www.theatlantic.com/most-popular/ +[6] https://www.theatlantic.com/latest/ +[7] https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/ +[8] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ +[9] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ +[10] https://www.theatlantic.com/category/fiction/ +[11] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ +[12] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/ +[13] https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/ +[14] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/ +[15] https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/ +[16] https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/planet/ +[17] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/ +[18] https://www.theatlantic.com/books/ +[19] https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/ +[20] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/ +[21] https://www.theatlantic.com/education/ +[22] https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/ +[23] https://www.theatlantic.com/category/features/ +[24] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/ +[25] https://www.theatlantic.com/events/ +[26] https://www.theatlantic.com/category/washington-week-atlantic/ +[27] https://www.theatlantic.com/progress/ +[28] https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/ +[29] https://www.theatlantic.com/archive/ +[30] https://www.theatlantic.com/free-daily-crossword-puzzle/ +[31] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ +[32] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ +[33] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/backissues/ +[34] https://accounts.theatlantic.com/products/gift +[38] https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/dear-therapist/ +[39] https://www.theatlantic.com/free-daily-crossword-puzzle/ +[40] https://www.theatlantic.com/archive/ +[41] https://accounts.theatlantic.com/accounts/subscription/ +[43] https://www.theatlantic.com/most-popular/ +[44] https://www.theatlantic.com/latest/ +[45] https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/ +[46] https://www.theatlantic.com/ +[47] https://www.theatlantic.com/ +[48] https://accounts.theatlantic.com/login/ +[49] https://www.theatlantic.com/subscribe/navbar/ +[50] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ +[51] https://www.theatlantic.com/author/charlie-warzel/ +[58] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/10/smartphone-camera-ai-photo-editing-fakery/675710/ +[59] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/10/five-stages-complicated-grief-wrong/671710/ +[60] https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/ +[61] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/03/dead-dog-tiktok-algorithm-pet-loss-grief/673445/ +[62] https://www.theatlantic.com/author/charlie-warzel/ +[63] https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/sign-up/galaxy-brain/ +[64] mailto:cwarzel@theatlantic.com